Happy Snappy (Fujifilm Finepix 1400 Zoom)

Member Name: timtom

Product:	Fujifilm Finepix 1400 Zoom
Date:	25/05/01 (169 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: robust, feature packed, familiar style

Disadvantages: quality of image MARGINALLY less than 35mm

I must admit to being a sucker for a gadget, any gadget, no matter how useless, tacky or seedy. However, having splashed out a small fortune, ( @ £2300 ), on a Hewlett Packard Pavilion 900MHz PC, I thought, 'What the Heck', MUST have a digital camera to go along with all the kit.

So, off I toddles to various PC outlets, foto shops etc, doing the rounds. I armed myself with some information on digital cameras gleaned from the web, ( unfortunately, I hadn't caught up with the wonderful Dooyoo at this point), and after some trial & endeavour ended up buying a Fujifilm 1400Zoom from Jessops.

I am amazed by this camera . . . . I totally love the interactivity and control that digital photography gives you. Prior to using this I had been used to trashing half of the foto's that came back from the developers. Either that or gnashing my teeth in frustraton at the utter crapness of the result, which contrasted so fundamentally with my expectations. There is none of that with this camera. You are able to preview the pictures either immidiately or at your leisure, the delete feature is kiddy-proof, ( so you cannot wipe off THAT shot in error!), and the picture quality is first class.

Admittedly, I did shell out for a 32MB Smartmedia card, which gives me 50 high quality frames to play around with. The number of frames increases with the level of quality that you set, however, 50 is plenty, I think. The camera also came with a 4MB card anyway, so I now have 58 high quality images available to me.

On print oout the quality is not quite as good as a 'normal' camera, but with a bit of tweaking from Adobe Photoshop, the standard is surprisingly high. Not much grain, good colour and contrast, the images are of a very high standard when printed on to decent qulity paper.

The camera has a number of extremely useful features, it is a zoom, ( manual), as well as in camera digital zoom, there is a frame delete function,
auto-timer, framing guide, red-eye reduction and a date function. The camera is so easy to use, it has all the familiarity of a point and click instant 35mm camera, but with all the advantages of digital photography.

I think it IS, possibly, as advanced in other reviews, an entry level camera, but £350 is a lot of anyones money, and unless you are a photo-geek, or expect to make a living from your snaps, then I would suggest this is an ample entry camera. It is value for money, well made, durable and packed with features. I suggest that the potential buyer looks very closely indeed at this camera, tries it out, handles it and then BUY it!

Summary: